Uber plans to enrol under the new rules, making Kolkata, the first city in India, where the San Francisco-based company will come under the regulatory regime in India.

NEW DELHI, BENGALURU: Kolkata has become the first Indian city to bring taxi aggregators under the rubric of the Information Technology law, allowing companies such as Uber, TaxiForSure (TFS) and Ola which plan to make a claim for similar recognition in the rest of the country .

Uber plans to enrol under the new rules, making Kolkata, the first city in India, where the San Francisco-based company will come under the regulatory regime in India. Taxi For Sure is also expected to follow suit.

In an order on Tuesday , Kolkata's Salt Lake City Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar spelt out the new conditions under which taxi hailing apps can operate as 'on-demand transport technology aggregators' and will be governed under the IT Act 2000.

“They must not own or lease any vehicles, employ any drivers or represent themselves as a taxi service, unless also registered as a taxi operator under the law,“ said Kumar in a notification.

Bidhan Nagar includes Kolkata' Salt Lake City which includes the technology hub of West Bengal and is adjacent the city's airport. The rules by the Salt Lake City Police are exactly opposite to what the Delhi Transport Department had framed, last month. The modified Radio Taxi Scheme (2006) by the Delhi government classified web-based taxi aggregators under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The taxi app aggregators were delighted with the development considering they are struggling to convince authorities in Delhi that they are a technology company and not a transport provider. “We hope it will start as a trend for positive regulation in other states. We will enrol soon under the new rules (under on-demand transport aggregator) soon,“ said Neeraj Singhal, head of India expansion at Uber Technologies.

Singhal added that Uber worked with the Police Commissionerate of Bidhan Nagar to work out the rules. He claimed that Kolkata is also the fastest growing city for Uber anywhere in the world.

OlaCabs declined to comment on the order but TaxiForSure said it may soon start operations in Kolkata after this order. “Though we are not yet present in Kolkata, this order gives us enough incentive to launch services immediately in the city,“ said Aprameya Radhakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of TaxiForSure.

Some experts say that the Kolkata order is better as it segregate the responsibilities of Driver and the aggregator. "The company should not be held responsible for the action of driver if all due diligence is done. It is difficult to predict the personal behaviour of the driver. Thus, it is important to create clear demarcation, "said Jaspal Singh, co-founder of Valoriser Consultants, which provides market research services for transportation companies.

However, a lawyer associated with one of the taxi firms said the companies can still be held liable under Section 79 of IT Act.

“If proper due diligence needed under IT Act and new rules has not occurred, a judge can always prosecute a company in event of an incident,“ she added.

“We need new regulations that encourage technology innovation. Such (new rules) can reduce traffic burden on Indian roads,“ said Raghav Gupta, India country manager for BlaBla Car, which claims it is a technology company than a transport provider.